Jamie Manolev, Anna Sullivan and Roger Slee explore the sensitive data collected on students, teachers and schools by educational apps. The authors document some of these points:
This data includes
- First and last names
- Student usernames
- Passwords
- Students’ age
- School names
- School addresses
- Photographs, videos, documents, drawings, or audio files
- Student class attendance data
- Feedback points
- IP addresses
- Browser details
- Clicks
- Referring URL’s
- Time spent on site
- Page views
- Teacher parent messages
Moreover, ClassDoJo says it ‘may also obtain information, including personal information, from third-party sources to update or supplement the information you provided or we collected automatically’.
This reminds me of Ben Williamson’s point about Class Dojo that sensitivity is produced over time:
The ‘sensitive information’ contained in ClassDojo is the behavioural record built up from teachers tapping reward points into the app.
I think that it needs to be noted that although there is a focus on ‘wellbeing’ the affordances of the application can be used in different ways. For example, Bianca Hewes has used it to monition 21st century learning.